Chilling in Nunavut

Monday, June 23, 2014

If I've said it before, I shall say it again - Baker Lake is full of extremely talented and creative individuals. Since we have moved up here, I have been admiring all of the beautiful handmade parkas that the majority of people wear. They vary in thickness so you have beautiful spring ones, wind/water resistant ones for trips out on the land in the summer, and of course, heavy duty winter ones. Part of me wished I didn't buy a Canada Goose because the local ones are so beautiful (and less expensive) and I like supporting local talent.

When we decided to head south again, I said I wanted to have one special item to mark our time in Nunavut. What better souvenir than to have a beautiful custom made parka to bring to the south so I can enjoy it every day - much better/more practical than having a sculpture collect dust because I'm a terrible cleaner. :)

I worked with the lovely Karyn (funny story - she used to work at the post office and when we first moved to town, she knew who we were and had our mail ready for us before we barely got off the plane. So when we walked up to the counter on our first day, her first words to me were, "are you Lily?" before I even introduced myself. The beauty of small town living!) to create my parka. We chatted on Wednesday and I pretty much gave her creative freedom. My only request was that there was a bit of pink (obviously) and that it wasn't too busy. She brought me a few options for trim and she recommended the hot pink/black flower pattern and away she went. I had my fitting on Friday and my parka was in my hands on Sunday.

The workmanship on it is amazing. The fit is perfect. With very little direction from me, she managed to make me a parka that is just so...Lily. I love everything about it!

I'm going to be the belle of the southern winters wearing my new parka! I almost can't wait for it to get cold again! (Almost.)

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

It is with mixed emotions that we write this post because it feels like it is too soon in coming. It seems like just a short while ago that we arrived in Baker Lake with all the time in the world ahead of us. Alas, we have been here for just about 2 years and with that, our time here has come to an end.

When we decided to come north, we were so excited at the adventure that lay ahead of us...and Baker did not disappoint. We have made some amazing friendships and have grown a northern family that will forever be in our lives. We were welcomed into this small but overwhelmingly friendly community with open arms and open hearts - something that we will never forget. We had adventures, we made memories - and more importantly, we shared our lives, and lives were shared with us.

The next couple of posts will be us wrapping things up, reminiscing and saying our goodbyes. What will become of this blog, you ask? Well, we will leave it up for comments and questions - and will monitor the email address (nunavutchillers at gmail dot com) because we feel it is important to help others moving to the north as much as they need. We know it was difficult to find current/"live" blogs when we were researching, and we want to keep that line of communication open for whoever needs it.

As the sun sets on this chapter of our lives and we await the rising of the moon for our next adventure, we want to say thank you for joining us on this journey and for being as supportive of us as we navigated these (frozen) waters. We hope you enjoyed our time together - because we certainly did! Who knows, maybe our next adventure will lead to more tales...the world is our oyster!

Saturday, June 7, 2014

At the end of our last post, Lily mentioned our posting schedule was going to be intermittent. This is a nice way of saying she was going to the Iqaluit office for a week, and the likelihood that I would remember to post every few days was low. Well, here it is a week later, and I'm finally getting around to it, so good call, honey.

With Lily away on business, Pepper and I have been relish...sorry, suffering the freedom that only males can fully appreciate. In all honesty, Pepper seems happy enough, but at night, he watches out the window, expecting Lily to come home, and finally gives up each night with a sigh and comes to bed. Other than the part about looking out the window, my routine is pretty similar. We keep in touch by phone usually once a day or so, but it's not the same.

I'm proud to say that there are no dishes stacked in the sink, and the laundry is folded and put away. This may seem fairly trivial to some of you, but believe me, these are bigger steps than you can appreciate. They shouldn't be, but they are, for now. ;-p

Lily and I recently committed to only eating what we had in our pantry or fridge/freezer, and only buying perishables like dairy and vegetables. On account of this, Pepper and I have been suffering through steak for a few days (the horror!). He seems not to mind as much, because he's a trooper. I just looked over at him for confirmation, and he yawned, which is dog-speak for many things, including "That's right, Jeff!".

This week has been a lot of cleaning, organizing, and job-hunting (now that school's out, I'm unemployed), and planning ways to make my wife happy (the penguin, walrus, sea lion, monkey, and pony are all on order). Seriously, we can't watch any more films with animals in them, because if they're cute, she wants one. It looks like I'll be better off just buying Marineland and African Lion Safari, and it would certainly be easier than trying to find space for those animals in our house.

Lily will be back in a few days, and both Pepper and I will be better for it. Come home soon and safely honey. We miss you.